Around the House...

Sometimes I get so wrapped up in posting the 'stuff we do', that I forget some of the basic every day occurences.

1) Hunter desperately needing to wear Sawyer's Peter Pan costume for most of Friday night.

2) Hunter somehow popping open a bag of chocolate chips in the car and eating 1/5 of the bag before I smelled the sugar in the air & turned around. We were on the way home from grocery shopping & he HAD to hold the chocolate chips. I didn't think he could really get that thick waxy plastic bag open!

3) Sawyer's favorite friend, Sierra, spent all day Tuesday at our house. They painted for a long time!

4) Hunter brought me Sawyer's bike helmet & Joe's sunglasses, asking for me to put them on him. Then he mounted the tricycle to cruise around with his brother on the deck. In his pajamas.

Centennial Olympic Park

If you haven't noticed, I LOVE this city. On Thursday we went down to Centennial Park downtown (with our friends Sierra & Mr. Joe) to watch the 12:30 fountain/music show, hear some live music (musicians are on the stage at noon), and let the kiddos play on the playground.

I love the city skyline, and all the neat water features in this park! The boys had a great time!

It was (only) 72* & windy, so we weren't planning on the kids playing in the fountain...

...but they couldn't resist trying to catch the sprays a little bit (and hence, Hunter went home nearly soaked). FUN DAY!

One Night Camping!

When you've got toddlers, one night camping is all you can do before you worry about your neighbors yelling at you. BUT we had a GREAT time with our friends Britt & Tommy (and baby T) camping at Carters Lake Friday night! We had a beautiful site with lake views surrounding us, and the kiddos actually all went to bed fairly easily. It was still toasty hot in the 80*s during the day, and got down in the 50*s at night. No one froze, yay!

Tin foil dinners & s'mores were all we wanted out of our camping experience. We got 'em, and they were DELICIOUS!

Big thanks to my mom & dad for getting us that awesome three room tent for Chrismas several years ago. I thought I might be crazy attemping taking the pack 'n play for Hunter to sleep in, but it fit in one of the 'wings' PERFECTLY. Hunter had an uninterrupted night's sleep, since it was so much like home! :)

MINDEN?!

Where's Minden?! That's what I've been figuring out...

Minden is a tiny town in Nevada with a population of about 3,100 people. It's about an hour south of Reno, 30 minutes east of Lake Tahoe, and 30 minutes from the California border. There are plenty of mountains, and a very mild winter.

We'll probably be packing up to move there the first week of November. I'll keep you updated!

This is the GE Energy building in Minden. It looks HUGE! Joe says they employ about a quarter of the city! I'm curious what dynamic that might bring to the town... hoping it's a good thing.

As you can probably imagine, I can't find a whole lot of pictures of Minden online. But this main park in town seems to be a common picture I do find. It looks promising!

But this picture doesn't. *ulgh*.... snow. I was really dreaming that I was done with that. At least it's very mild compared to the Midwest winters I know. I talked with an apartment manager on the phone, and when she heard we were coming from Atlanta, she got all somber and said "ohhhh well we have winter here...", warning me. I told her I'd read it was a fairly mild winter, though. She responded, "WELL, last year we had an entire week where it snowed every day! But all the other snowfalls were just dustings." OooOoooo ScArY!!! Hehe :) I can handle that kind of winter. Let's hope the snow week is during Christmas this year, since we're not going anywhere anyway. Flights are too expensive anywhere nearby. I'll sure miss the Atlanta Airport, offering such cheap flights everywhere.

Don't get me started on what else I'll miss about Atlanta. Just send out good vibes into the Universe, willing us to come back next summer, permanently. I will be.

It's DONE!!! It's DONE!!!

The quiet book I've been making for the boys since February is finally DONE!!! Check out my hand-stitched creation at my crafty blog: simple-creativity.blogspot.com

Atlanta's Central Park

Saturday we went down to Piedmont Park, which is considered Atlanta's 'Central Park'. It's absolutely beautiful. Wide open green lawns, plenty of rolling green hills and shade trees for everyone to have their own little picnic spots, a lake, plenty of sports fields, and stunning views of the city skyline. Couldn't have asked for a better afternoon!

We met our friends there for their son's first birthday (Finn is seriously cute). We were invited there because they wanted to do a 'balloon launch'. We expected a big bunch of balloons, "UP" style, but he actually was attaching them all to one single ribbon, as it towered up into the sky. They did 100 balloons, and it was seriously cool looking!!!

The wind made it a little tricky (very close to being tangled in a tree), but was generally just the right amount to also make it look really mesmerizing! We're glad we got to be a part of it!

Zoo Atlanta!

My friend Jennifer was awesome & took us along to the Zoo (on her family pass- free- woo hoo!)!! I took the boys once last summer, but to be honest I didn't remember much, & I'm sure Hunter didn't either (he was only 6 months old). They had also done a lot of new things since last summer, so it was definitely worth it!

Feeding the parakeets was definitely a highlight! They give you a little wooden stick with bird seed gobbed on the end of it. The trees are full of bright, colorful parakeets to attract with your stick. Hunter was SQUEALING with delight feeling the birds pick off his stick!

See the baby giraffe back there? I think it's a few months old now, so it's getting pretty big:

The goats, and the poor turtle trying desperately to escape his pen. Sorry dude, I couldn't lift you if I tried (he was HUGE)!

Another Day, Another Sunburn

We squeezed in another trip to Allatoona Lake, going this time with our buddies the Smiths (Sawyer and Sierra are tight). :) The water was still bathwater warm, so it was a great trip! We might even go again...

What I thought was going to be just a few hours at the lake, turned into about FIVE. These boys ZONKED out almost immediately after starting the drive!

The Game

Sawyer had his first soccer game on Saturday, and it was AWESOME! All of the soccer practice with Joe must be paying off here, because he was the strongest member of his team. Out of the ten goals made by his team, Sawyer scored EIGHT of them! He is really loving this sport (easy when you're good at it, right?)!

One of his goals:

Best. Vacation. Ever.

Last week we had an amazing beach vacation on Amelia Island in Florida! We found a great little beachfront rental, and spent the majority of our time in the sand & sun, and exploring the rest of the island. The actual city of Fernandina Beach has a population of about 11,000, so there was plenty to explore (without so much that we felt overwhelmed). It was a perfect week, and I'd recommend this place to anyone!

Checking out Fort Clinch State Park: Beautiful spanish moss draped trees, salt marshes, beachfront/fishing pier, and a civil war fort.

Walking & eating downtown, and Hunter enjoying eating alligator meat!

HAPPY HAPPY BEACH BOY!!!

Our sunset sailing cruise, which was awesome: